This TED Talk is about the history of something and how it affects that something. Paul Bloom will be talking about his thoughts on the origins of pleasure and pain.
Paul Bloom starts off with story about an awful man, Hermann Göring. He was Hitler's second in command during World War 2. Just like Hitler, Göring loved collecting art. During WWII when Göring would travel around Europe he would steal, extort and occasionally buy artwork to add to his collection. What Göring really wanted was a piece of art by Vermeer, Hitler had two of them and Göring did not have any. Göring found a Dutch art dealer named Han Van Meegeren who sold him a painting by Vermeer. This artwork was Göring's favorite. A few weeks later the World War ended and Göring was captured and tried and then sentenced to death. After that the Allied forces went through his art collection and went after all the people who he got the artwork from. The Dutch police went to Amsterdam and arrested Van Meegeren, Van Meegeren was charged with treason, which is punishable by death. Six weeks into his prison sentence Van Meegeren confessed, not to treason but to forging Vermeer's artwork and selling it to a Nazi. No one believed him; he said that he could prove it. Van Meegeren said he could paint a Vermeer much better than he sold. So they did and Van Meegren painted a beautiful Vermeer. The charges of treason were dropped, he got charged for forgery, he was out of jail a year later and died as a Dutch hero. Paul Bloom then turned his focus back on Göring, who he says was a terrible man even for a Nazi. He says you could feel sympathy for this awful man when he was told that his favorite painting was a forgery. When he discovered that the paintings had different origins, even though they looked almost identical, he killed himself. Paul Bloom asks why this matters?
Why do origins matter so much? The answer that many sociologists would give is that we are snobs and are only focused on status. If you want to show how rich or powerful you are it is always better to own and original rather than a forgery because there are always less originals. Bloom says that he does not doubt that that plays a role, but he wants to convince us is that there is something else going on. He wants to convince us that humans are natural born essentialists, we don't just respond to things as we see them or hear them or feel them but we respond to things on our beliefs of what they really are, where they came from, what they are made of. He says this is true not just for how us humans think about things but how we react to them. He is suggesting that pleasure is deep and not just for high level things like art but also for things as simple as food. Bloom then gives an example about food, he shows a picture of a piece of meat and asks the audience if they would eat it, well it depends doesn’t it? It is not that surprising that people would eat it depending on what kind of meat it is, what is more surprising is that how it tastes to you will depend more on what you think you are eating. One demonstration of this was done with young children, the question was how do you not only get children to eat more carrots and drink more milk but to get more pleasure from it? You tell them it is from a place they think has good food, for example McDonald's, you tell a child the carrots and milk is from McDonald's and since they think McDonald's food is tastier it leads them to believe that the food actually tastes better when in fact it is the exact same food. Another example of the amount an object matters based on it’s origin are consumer products, he shows a picture of George Clooney and his sweater. Bloom had previously asked people how much they would pay for the sweater owned by Clooney. They said one hundred and thirty five dollars, more than you would pay for a sweater with the same exact function but not the same history of the sweater. Bloom asked a different group and gave them restrictions or conditions, the first restriction was that whoever bought it could not tell anyone they owned it and could not resell it, this dropped the price to one hundred and twenty two dollars. Another condition was that the sweater was thoroughly washed before it got to you; this dropped the price to one hundred and five dollars.
The subject is brought back to art. Bloom says he likes art, that if someone got him a piece of artwork he would want the original and not a copy. That is not because he is a snob but is because he would rather have the piece of art with a history. The original piece of artwork is a product of a creative act where as the forgery is not. Bloom says this approach can explain people's different tastes in art. A picture of a little girl named Marla Olmstead; she did most of her work when she was three years old. Her artwork would sell for tens of thousands of dollars. Her family had invited the show 60 minutes into their home to film her painting; the show then reported that her father coached her while she would paint. The value of her art immediately dropped to nothing when this fact got out to her buyers. It was still the exact same artwork but the history, or the people's knowing of the history had changed. The focus is now turned to music. He talks about a very famous violinist, Joshua Bell, the Washington Post wanted to do an experiment on him. How much would people like the music of Joshua Bell if they did not know they were listening to him? They sent Bell to a subway station for forty-five minutes to play his violin and see how much money he would make doing it. Bell makes thirty-two dollars, so apparently to really enjoy Bell's music you need to know that the music is coming from him.
Bloom says that the origin of pleasure applies to the origin of pain exactly the same way; the history matters. Your beliefs about the history of the pain affects how much it will hurt. A test has been done to prove this. People were selected to be electrically shocked and then report how much it hurt. In the first trial the people were told that whoever was giving the shocks did not know they were. The first shock hurt the most and the following four decreased in the amount of pain because the people got used to the feeling of the shock. In the second trial the people were told that whoever was giving the shocks knew that they were giving the shocks. The first one hurt like hell and the following four hurts just as much.
I found this TED Talk to be the most interesting one that I have wrote a reflection on. It really gave me some perspective about how differently you can think about something based on what background knowledge you have about it. Now I can totally relate it to my actual life and think about how something is the exact same even if I know something or don't. I just find this talk to be so interesting about how something as little as a dad coaching his daughter for her artwork can affect something so much. I am just so amazed by it, like honestly why does it even matter?
That is the question I challenge you with, "Why should the origin of something affect it?". Maybe if you watch this TED talk you will be able to understand it even more.
Paul Bloom starts off with story about an awful man, Hermann Göring. He was Hitler's second in command during World War 2. Just like Hitler, Göring loved collecting art. During WWII when Göring would travel around Europe he would steal, extort and occasionally buy artwork to add to his collection. What Göring really wanted was a piece of art by Vermeer, Hitler had two of them and Göring did not have any. Göring found a Dutch art dealer named Han Van Meegeren who sold him a painting by Vermeer. This artwork was Göring's favorite. A few weeks later the World War ended and Göring was captured and tried and then sentenced to death. After that the Allied forces went through his art collection and went after all the people who he got the artwork from. The Dutch police went to Amsterdam and arrested Van Meegeren, Van Meegeren was charged with treason, which is punishable by death. Six weeks into his prison sentence Van Meegeren confessed, not to treason but to forging Vermeer's artwork and selling it to a Nazi. No one believed him; he said that he could prove it. Van Meegeren said he could paint a Vermeer much better than he sold. So they did and Van Meegren painted a beautiful Vermeer. The charges of treason were dropped, he got charged for forgery, he was out of jail a year later and died as a Dutch hero. Paul Bloom then turned his focus back on Göring, who he says was a terrible man even for a Nazi. He says you could feel sympathy for this awful man when he was told that his favorite painting was a forgery. When he discovered that the paintings had different origins, even though they looked almost identical, he killed himself. Paul Bloom asks why this matters?
Why do origins matter so much? The answer that many sociologists would give is that we are snobs and are only focused on status. If you want to show how rich or powerful you are it is always better to own and original rather than a forgery because there are always less originals. Bloom says that he does not doubt that that plays a role, but he wants to convince us is that there is something else going on. He wants to convince us that humans are natural born essentialists, we don't just respond to things as we see them or hear them or feel them but we respond to things on our beliefs of what they really are, where they came from, what they are made of. He says this is true not just for how us humans think about things but how we react to them. He is suggesting that pleasure is deep and not just for high level things like art but also for things as simple as food. Bloom then gives an example about food, he shows a picture of a piece of meat and asks the audience if they would eat it, well it depends doesn’t it? It is not that surprising that people would eat it depending on what kind of meat it is, what is more surprising is that how it tastes to you will depend more on what you think you are eating. One demonstration of this was done with young children, the question was how do you not only get children to eat more carrots and drink more milk but to get more pleasure from it? You tell them it is from a place they think has good food, for example McDonald's, you tell a child the carrots and milk is from McDonald's and since they think McDonald's food is tastier it leads them to believe that the food actually tastes better when in fact it is the exact same food. Another example of the amount an object matters based on it’s origin are consumer products, he shows a picture of George Clooney and his sweater. Bloom had previously asked people how much they would pay for the sweater owned by Clooney. They said one hundred and thirty five dollars, more than you would pay for a sweater with the same exact function but not the same history of the sweater. Bloom asked a different group and gave them restrictions or conditions, the first restriction was that whoever bought it could not tell anyone they owned it and could not resell it, this dropped the price to one hundred and twenty two dollars. Another condition was that the sweater was thoroughly washed before it got to you; this dropped the price to one hundred and five dollars.
The subject is brought back to art. Bloom says he likes art, that if someone got him a piece of artwork he would want the original and not a copy. That is not because he is a snob but is because he would rather have the piece of art with a history. The original piece of artwork is a product of a creative act where as the forgery is not. Bloom says this approach can explain people's different tastes in art. A picture of a little girl named Marla Olmstead; she did most of her work when she was three years old. Her artwork would sell for tens of thousands of dollars. Her family had invited the show 60 minutes into their home to film her painting; the show then reported that her father coached her while she would paint. The value of her art immediately dropped to nothing when this fact got out to her buyers. It was still the exact same artwork but the history, or the people's knowing of the history had changed. The focus is now turned to music. He talks about a very famous violinist, Joshua Bell, the Washington Post wanted to do an experiment on him. How much would people like the music of Joshua Bell if they did not know they were listening to him? They sent Bell to a subway station for forty-five minutes to play his violin and see how much money he would make doing it. Bell makes thirty-two dollars, so apparently to really enjoy Bell's music you need to know that the music is coming from him.
Bloom says that the origin of pleasure applies to the origin of pain exactly the same way; the history matters. Your beliefs about the history of the pain affects how much it will hurt. A test has been done to prove this. People were selected to be electrically shocked and then report how much it hurt. In the first trial the people were told that whoever was giving the shocks did not know they were. The first shock hurt the most and the following four decreased in the amount of pain because the people got used to the feeling of the shock. In the second trial the people were told that whoever was giving the shocks knew that they were giving the shocks. The first one hurt like hell and the following four hurts just as much.
I found this TED Talk to be the most interesting one that I have wrote a reflection on. It really gave me some perspective about how differently you can think about something based on what background knowledge you have about it. Now I can totally relate it to my actual life and think about how something is the exact same even if I know something or don't. I just find this talk to be so interesting about how something as little as a dad coaching his daughter for her artwork can affect something so much. I am just so amazed by it, like honestly why does it even matter?
That is the question I challenge you with, "Why should the origin of something affect it?". Maybe if you watch this TED talk you will be able to understand it even more.